Posted on June 9th, 2008
The winners of the 2008 James Beard Foundation Awards announced Sunday night, June 8th, include:
Restaurants and Chefs, National
Outstanding Restaurateur: Joe Bastianich and Mario Batali, Babbo Ristorante e Enoteca, New York
Outstanding Chef: Grant Achatz, Alinea, Chicago
Outstanding Restaurant: Gramercy Tavern, New York (Danny Meyer)
Outstanding New Restaurant: Central Michel Richard, Washington (Michel Richard)
Rising Star Chef: Gavin Kaysen, Cafe Boulud, New York
Outstanding Pastry Chef: Elisabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson, Tartine Bakery, San Francisco
Outstanding Wine Service: Eleven Madison Park, New York
Oustanding Wine and Spirits Professional: Terry Theise, Terry Theise Estate Selections, Silver Spring, Md.
Outstanding Service: Terra, St. Helena, Calif.
Chefs - Regional
Best Chef: Great Lakes - Carrie Nahabedian, Naha, Chicago
Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic - Eric Ziebold, CityZen, Washington, DC
Best Chef: Midwest - Adam Siegel, Bartolotta’s Lake Park Bistro, Milwaukee
Best Chef: New York - David Chang, Momofuku Ssam Bar, New York
Best Chef: Northeast - Patrick Connolly, Radius, Boston
Best Chef: Northwest - Holly Smith, Cafe Juanita, Kirkland, Wash.
Best Chef: Southwest - Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson, Frasca Food and Wine, Boulder, Colo.
Best Chef: South - Michelle Bernstein, Michy’s, Miami
Best Chef: Southeast - Robert Stehling, Hominy Grill, Charleston, S.C.
Best Chef: Pacific - Craig Stoll, Delfina, San Francisco
Books
Cookbook of the Year - Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, “The River Cottage Meat Book”
Cookbook Hall of Fame - Paula Wolfert, “Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco”
Asian Cooking - Niloufer Ichaporia King, “My Bombay Kitchen: Traditional and Modern Parsi Home Cooking”
Baking and Dessert - Peter Reinhart, “Peter Reinhart’s Whole Grain Breads: New Techniques, Extraordinary Flavor”
Cooking from a Professional Point of View - The French Culinary Institute with Judith Choate, “The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Cuisine”
Entertaining - Trish Magwood, “Dish Entertains”
Americana - Jean Anderson, “A Love Affair with Southern Cooking”
General - James Peterson, “Cooking”
Healthy Focus - Jean Harvey-Berino with Joyce Hendley and the editors of EatingWell magazine, “The EatingWell Diet”
International - Anne Willan, “The Country Cooking of France”
Reference - Rowan Jacobsen, “A Geography of Oysters: The Connoisseur’s Guide to Oyster Eating in North America”
Single Subject - Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, “The River Cottage Meat Book”
Wine and Spirits - David Wondrich, “Imbibe!: From Absinthe Cocktail to Whiskey Smash, a Salute in Stories and Drinks to ‘Professor’ Jerry Thomas, Pioneer of the American Bar”
Writing on Food - Barbara Kingsolver, “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life”
Photography - Photographer: France Ruffenach, “The Country Cooking of France” by Anne Willan
Also ….
Television Food Segment, National or Local: The Victory Garden, PBS
Television Food Special: Top Chef Holiday Special, Bravo
Television Food Show, National or Local: Gourmet’s Diary of a Foodie, American Public Television
Website Focusing on Food, Beverage, Restaurant, or Nutrition: Epicurious.com, Tanya Steel
Multimedia Writing on Food: Josh Ozersky and Daniel Maurer, nymag.com, “Grub Street”
Posted on June 2nd, 2008
If you’re not a Martha groupie, and you’re a foodie, you can go a stretch of time — between the show about nurses and the show about curtains — before she get’s back to doing “all food”. But boy oh boy when Martha Stewart does get back to food it’s often incredible, and it’s often a string of shows in a row. And that’s excatly what we’ve got this week. So be prepared to watch or get that TIVO going.
As always, in case the VCR breaks down, whatever is shown on the nationally syndicated channel during the day, the following day you can find Martha repeated in the early evening on the Fine Living channel.
Monday is “Female Italian Chef Day” with chef Odette Fada of San Domenico doing raviolo with egg yolk and truffle butter; chef Lidia Bastianich making sweet Italian sausage with fennel and olives; and chef Gina DePalma from Babbo making her Italian pastry.
Tuesday is “The Breakfast Show” featuring New Orleans restaurateurs Ti Adelaide Martin and Lally Brennan of Commander’s Palace making brandy milk punch and brandy Alexander; Riad Nasr and Lee Hanson from Manhattan’s Balthazar make brioche French toast and eggs Benedict; and chef Neil Kleinberg from Clinton Street Baking Company whips up some buttermilk biscuits.
Wednesday is “The Latin Food Show” with Michelle Bernstein of Michy’s Miami and MB in Cancun makes seafood bouillabaisse; chef Maricel Presilla creates bacon and red-cabbage relis; and Carmen Gonzalez from Lucy of Gramercy serves up pork and plantains as well as coconut milk pudding dessert.
Thursday is “The Chef Pasta Show” where Lidia Bastianich returns making Sicilian fettuccine with fresh swordfish; Mario Batali makes a traditional spaghetti recipe; Ron Suhanosky of Manhattan’s Sfoglia makes a classic carbonara; and Sal Scognamillo of Patsy’s Italian Restaurant creates a southern Italian recipe for rigatoni sorrentino.
Friday is “The Male Italian Chef Show” with Chris Bianco of Pizzeria Bianco preparing lemon focaccia; Andrew Carmellini of NYC’s A Voce makes steamed black bass with pesto; and Sardinian chef Efisio Farris creates fregula with asparagus and gorgonzola as well as pasta with ricotta and bottarga caviar.
Posted on May 18th, 2008
The first three shows this week of The Martha Stewart Show are all about food. So set your dial, your VCR, your TIVO for these. And remember, if you still miss them when they’re on during the day on your local network, you can see them each repeated the following night on the Fine Living channel. Dates listed are the first run major network days.
Monday, May 19: “Everyday Food Show” - The cooks from Martha’s food show on PBS with cooks from the show - Sandy Gluck, pineapple-glazed chicken, chicken salad, Lucinda Scala Quinn, lemon parsley pork chops, Emma Feigenbaum, crab cakes, Margot Olshan, potato and onion frittata, Sarah Carey, key lime tart.
Tuesday, May 20: “Simple Suppers” - Mario Batali, pizza margherita, Harold Dieterle (who is best known as the winner of season one of Top Chef), snapper with baby bok choy, Mark Strausman, linguini, Emeril Lagasse, pork tenderloin, Joey Campanaro, roast chicken, John Barricelli (known as one of the original Everday Food cooks now with Everyday Baking), pasta lazio.
Wednesday, May 21: “Small Plates” - repared foods platter, Emeril Lagasse, shrimp remoulade salad, Elizabeth Falkner, scallops with bacon, tomato, and avocado puree, Laurent Tourondel, heirloom tomato and watermelon salad, Marcus Samuelsson, shrimp piri piri.
Posted on April 11th, 2008
S. Irene Virbila, Restaurant Critic for the LA Times, just did a really nice piece where she reviewed the state of restaurants in Vegas (patrons paying lots of money everywhere) and reviews the new star restaurants, particularly those at “thee” new casino in town, that are causing a lot of fuss.
Beginning with “At $160 for two, it’s easily the most expensive steak I’ve ever eaten, if not the most expensive piece of aged meat in the country.” to how “in a private dining room floating above a state-of-the-art kitchen, six businessmen spend a minimum of $350 each to work their way through the tasting menu at Restaurant Charlie” the article goes on to say:
Though everybody may be pinching pennies at home, Las Vegas seems untouched by the prevailing winds of economic downturn, operating by its own rules and logic. The economy may be contracting elsewhere, but here the casinos are still building. And building [….]
[Where people can] indulge in an opulent multi-course meal from a French chef with three Michelin stars — actually, there are three three-star chefs here — what could possibly be next? Less flash, less gimmickry — and less invention. This time around, menus are more traditional, the design sometimes so conservative you can’t believe you’re in Vegas. They’re luring in crowds with no more than good food, high comfort and great service. And for that, they’re charging enough to give even high rollers indigestion.
The review goes on to highlight the new restaurants at the Palazzo: Mario Batali’s and Joe Bastianich’s Carnevino, Wolfgang Puck’s Cut — whose opening night grabbed even our attention — Charlie Trotter’s Restaurant Charlie, Emeril Lagasse’s Table 10 and — not in a casino and so far off the beaten path as to be difficult to find — maverick chef Louis Osteen’s eaterie called Louis’s Las Vegas.
While they’re having busy restaurants full of foodies tossing the money their way, they’re not — Robin Leach chastises — getting the respect they deserve from this year’s James Beard Awards. Or at least not as much as Leach thinks they should be getting specifically for their Vegas-centered restaurants:
It’s hard to believe but totally true that in the newest list of nominees in 52 different categories for the James Beard Foundation Awards not one Vegas celebrity chef or resort restaurant gets a tip of the toque for food!
Cooling down briefly he says: “In interests of fairness I will point out that some East Coast and West Coast ‘name’ chefs who have restaurants here were recognized for their ‘outstanding talents’ ranging from best cookbook, to best TV show to best new restaurant—but none of their Vegas based operations won any praise whatsoever.”
But then, making some good points, he says back:
So where were our superstars: Michael Mina, Paul Bartolotta, Bradley Ogden, Martin Heirling, David Robins, Julian Serrano, Barry Dakake, Andre Rochat, Alex Stratta, Michael Jordan, Kerry Simon, Steve Martorano — let alone the big VIP names of Joel Robuchon, Guy Savoy, Daniel Boulud, Charlie Palmer, Charlie Trotter, Emeril Lagasse, Thomas Keller, Nobu Matsuhisa, David Burke? I apologize if I’ve omitted any of my chef friends but the smoke is steaming out of my ears and I’m thumping my keyboard way too hard!
Robin’s heated tirade ends with “We are ahead in every respect of so many eateries in Paris, New York and Los Angeles. It’s totally unfair and a case purely of effete New York City foodie snobbism” — and a call for a boycott of the Beards ceremony.
Remind me never to get Mr. Leach annoyed. And I mean that!
